Home » Video Games » PlayStation VR to Bring Drastic, Much Needed Change to the Gaming Industry

PlayStation VR to Bring Drastic, Much Needed Change to the Gaming Industry

Technology blogs like GamesRadar and TechoMag seem convinced that virtual reality (VR) is the future of gaming. We must confess we are of the similar opinion as well. Recently released HTC Vive and Oculus Rift gave us a taste of how incredibly intense VR games can be, as we saw people walking on a rope atop a tall building, sliding down a steep path, climbing a mountain, shooting their way out of trouble, and much more. Just a bit of tweaks and additions, and these games could touch the AAA quality mark. This transition needs to happen, otherwise it will be difficult to attract hardcore gamers to the new tech.

Sony is aiming to be the first one to make it happen with its highly anticipated PlayStation VR (slated to release later this year).

Kicking Off the New Era of Gaming with a Bang

HTC and Oculus introduced most of the people to VR with their respective headsets, but people are mostly looking forward to PlayStation VR, which will come with a ton of new games, and almost every single one of them looks like it could be a blockbuster hit. Let’s just quickly run through some of the PlayStation VR offerings that are in the pipeline.

The first game that seems to be on the must-buy list of every single gamer looking forward to PlayStation VR is Eve: Valkyrie, a space warfare adventure. This game is set to feature some large scale space battles where players will go against AI and human enemies, so there’s a lot of potential, especially in the immersive virtual reality setting.

Second game that people are excited about is Ace Combat 7. In this game, players will be flying a plane and taking part in dogfights. Air combat has been a missing element in modern gaming, and there’s no better way to revive it than by making a VR title.

Third game is a robbery-oriented title called The London Heist. Heist games have always been popular amongst gamers, and The London Heist for VR seems like it’s going to be another huge hit. Players will be robbing multiple places, and will have full control over the body of the main character. They’ll be able to move freely and kill any incoming resistance with PlayStation Move controller. To add a bit of realism, developers have added manual reload option in the game, where you have to take the magazine out of your gun and put a new one in. Well, this just sounds super awesome.

Why These Games are the Future

VR and the aforementioned games are the future because they are unique. Except for the VR games, everything coming out seems exactly the same. You spawn at a location, go to point A, shoot people, proceed to point B, shoot people, and this goes on until the game is over. Other than that, there are sports titles which come out every year but without any significant improvements. Even the RPGs, horror survival, action adventure, and platformer titles are simply trying to imitate the most notable franchises in the genre. With VR, at least developers are trying to make something new, something where you feel like you’re actually experiencing something new rather than simply going through the motions that you are all too familiar with.

Sony seems to be betting all its money on VR gaming. It has even announced an upgraded PlayStation 4 hardware called PlayStation 4 Neo, which is touted to be twice as powerful as its younger brother, and offer better support for PlayStation VR and 4K resolution. At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, the company even revealed Batman Arkham VR, thus exhibiting its confidence in what is clearly the future of gaming.

Is Microsoft planning something similar with HoloLens? And will Oculus Rift for PC also play its role in making VR gaming mainstream? It doesn’t seem like we’ll have to wait too long to find out.